The first of 24 events was the 200-yard freestyle relay. Amherst's youthful "A" relay, consisting of Mary Marvel '09, Alex Lee '09, Erin Morrison '09 and Lisa Pritchard '08, placed third in 1:39.02. Suzie Luft '08 placed 16th in the 50-yard breaststroke, while Jackie de la Fuente '09 took 20th. "Luft kicked off the weekend with a lifetime best 50-yard breaststroke and the momentum picked up from there," said Julie Kim '08. The Jeff co-captains both placed in the 50-yard butterfly: Margaret Ramsey '07 tied for seventh and Mia Anderson '06 finished 22nd.
Amherst showed off its skill in the 500-yard freestyle. Meaghan Stern '09 handily won in 5:02.22-breaking Morgan Bayer '03's college record of 5:04.72-with Kim hot on her heels in fourth at 5:05.32. "[Kim] has been working so hard this season: every 500 she swims she takes off time. She's my idol," said Marvel.
Pritchard sprinted to a pool record in the 50-yard backstroke with her 27.58 performance in the morning. She swam slightly slower in the finals later that evening to finish second.
Sophmore Brittany Sasser's first of three individual victories was in the 200-yard individual medley, finishing in 2:05.93.
Marvel sped to second place in the 50-yard freestyle with a personal best time of 24.49; Morrison took 12th. In one-meter diving Sabrina Dorman '09 placed eighth and Hannah Shayer-McLeod '09 13th. Day one concluded with the 400-yard medley relay; Sasser, Piper Pettersen '07, Marvel and Stern finished in second.
Saturday opened with the 200-yard medley relay, in which Sasser, Pettersen, Ramsey and Stern earned third. Margaret Tato '09, Pritchard, Luft, and Marvel placed 14th. Amherst continued to shine in the distance events as Kim cut 10 seconds off her seed time to finish third and Ellie Hewitt '09 placed seventh.
Jasmina Cheung-Lau '07 and Kara MacLaverty '09 finished sixth and seventh in the 400-yard individual medley, respectively. The 100-yard butterfly was another excellent event for the Jeffs, with Pettersen and Marvel taking second and third.
Stern won her second NESCAC title in the 200-yard freestyle with a 1:52.73 that broke the college record of 1:54.40. "Stern had her best time in the 200 free," said Anderson. Kim added, "Two-event champion Stern dropped time from her already fast times to make us realize that all of our hard work is paying off." Ramsey finished sixth in 1:56.05 and Morrison was ninth.
Pettersen came in seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke. Amherst was well-represented in the top heat of the 100-yard backstroke, as Sasser and Lee took first and second, respectively, with Pritchard right behind in fourth, just shy of completing a Jeff sweep. "[Lee] really contributes to the positive attitude of this team-she's always smiling! She's put into pressure situations by [Head Coach] Nick [Nichols] and she always pulls through," said Kim.
To cap a stellar evening of racing, Amherst won the 800-yard freestyle relay, making the long event speed by. Kim led off neck and neck with foes from Middlebury and Williams Colleges; Sasser pulled the Jeffs ahead, Ramsey maintained the several second lead and Stern anchored. They finished in 7:39.05 to improve the meet and college record set last year by last year's Amherst contingent.
Kim finished fifth in the 1650-yard freestyle, Cheung-Lau sixth and Hewitt eighth. "Our distance swimmers have been amazing," said Anderson, who was particularly impressed by Hewitt's performances.
Sasser dominated the 200-yard backstroke, breaking the national record of 2:00.85 by nearly a second with her 1:59.92 and improving her best time from last year's NESCAC meet. Lee finished fifth to complete her stellar weekend. Stern broke yet another college record in the 100-yard freestyle, bettering it from 52.30 with her second place 51.90. "I was really nervous coming into my first NESCACs, but I [swam] all best times," said Marvel.
Pettersen earned another seventh place in the 200-yard breaststroke, and Cheung-Lau did likewise in the 200-yard butterfly. Ramsey, Tato, Jennifer Lewkowitz '08 and Anderson took 10th, 12th, 13th and 23rd, respectively, showing Amherst's butterfly depth. Dorman added another eighth place, this time in three-meter diving. To complete the meet, Amherst's Sasser, Kim, Marvel and Stern took a close second in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
To earn third place, the women worked as a team in this mostly individual sport, with everyone contributing. "I think we've had very good performances. People just get up to the challenge and are swimming wicked fast," said Kim.
"The freshman class as a whole has impressed the upperclassmen and brought up the morale for the whole team," said Anderson. "It's sad to swim my last meet but I'm glad to do it with these girls. It's great to see the smiles on everyone's faces!"
Amherst will send a group of swimmers to the NCAA Championships on March 9-10, where they placed fifth last season.
NESCAC Notes
Williams won its sixth-consecutive NESCAC title with 1878.5 points. Middlebury was second with 1583. Tufts University finished fourth behind Amherst with 931 and Connecticut College was fifth with 808. Eph Lindsay Payne improved her 100-yard breaststroke national record to 1:00.54.